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NJEIERS. FHOTWLITHOGRAPNER. WASHINGTON. D C.

UNITED STATES PATENT oEEioE.

J. A."sAEEoRD, 0E WINCHEsTER, MASSACHUSETTS, AND' JNO. w. CHASE, oF NORTH WEARE, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

SKIVING-MACHINE.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 25,444, dated September 13, 1859.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, J. A. SAFFORD, of Tinchestei, in the county of Middlesex and State of Massachusetts, and J. W. CHASE, of North VVeare, inthe county of Hillsboro and State of New Hampshire, have invented certain Improvements in Machines for Skiving and Splitting Leather, of which the following is a full, clear, and eXact description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, making part of this speciiication, in which- Figure 1 is a front elevation of our machine. Fig. 2, a plan and Fig. 3, a section upon the line X. X. of Fig. 2. Fig. Li details to be referred to hereafter.

In the machines heretofore constructed for skiving and splitting` leather, each end of the gage roll has been elevated or de pressed by a screw operated by hand the one independently of the other, but with a machine thus constructed and adjusted it is not possible to vary-the position of the gage roll while the machine is in operation and consequently a great variety of work can be but imperfectly performed upon it. For instance it is often desirable to remove the fibers and loose ragged surface from the iiesh side of a piece of leather without reducing it in thickness, and with the old machines if such leather vary in thickness either a portion. of its surface must remain unskived, or else a portion must be unnecessarily reduced in thickness occasioning either imperfect work or much waste of stock.

To remedy these'defects and to enable us to vary the position of the roll equally from end to end, even while the machine is in operation and also to dispense with the tedious and uncertain method of adjusting-it, is the object of the first part of our invention which consists in so connecting the screws which elevate and depress the ,two ends of the roll by means of a shaft and gearing that they may be simultaneously and equally turned, whereby by a single operation the roll is raised or lowered as required and is maintained constantly parallel to the edge of the knife. By means of this part of our invention also we are enabled to chamfer a piece of leather as it is skived and to give to the cha-mfer any degree of taper required.

A second objection to skiving machines of this class as heretofore constructed arises from the fact that t-he gage roll has been held in posit-ion while the leather is being drawn through by the hand of the operator alone and it was also thrown up for the in Sertion of a fresh piece of leather by the same means but when thus held the roll was liable to waver and tremble and a wavy uneven surface was thereby given to the leather, and this difficulty was augmented by the springing of the apron past the edge of the knife occasioned by variations in the thickness and density of the leather.

To obviate the above difficulties we hold the gage roll rigidly by a catchor rest while the skiving is being performed and employ a spring for the purpose of raising it preA paratory to inserting a fresh piece of leather it being simply necessary to release the roll from its catch, and to return it to its working position by hand after the leather is inserted and this forms the second part of our invention.

The third part of our invention consists in passing the edge of the spring apron a short distance beneath the edge of the knife whereby it is prevented from springing up past the knife and producing the uneven surface above mentioned.

To enable others skilled in the art to understand our invention we will proceed to describe the manner in which we have carried it out.

In the said drawings A, is the frame or bed of the machine which is firmly secured to a bench or table by screws passing through holes cz. From each end of this frame rises a standard b in suitable bea-rings in the top of which is carried a horizontal shaft B, to one end of which is secured a hand wheel C, by which the shaft is revolved by the hand of the operator. Near each of the bearings in the standards b, there is secured to the shaft B, a cog wheel D, which engages with a ,pinion E, on a screw shaft F, rising from the bed A. A female screw on the inside of the pinion E engages with a screw on the shaft F, and as the shaft B, is revolved the pinions E, rise and fall their motion being limited by a stop c, in the head of the shaft F, and by the compression of a spring d, which surrounds the shaft below the pinion. The cog wheels D, and the pinions E are thus prevented from becoming disengaged ,from each other.

On each shaft F, immediately beneath the pinion E, is a sleeve Gr which is held up in contact with the pinion above it by the coiled wire spring Z which surrounds the. shaft F and rests on the bed A, and to these sleeves are secured the ends of a stout rod H, from which is suspended a swinging frame I, the ends c, of which are connected together by a brace rod f. This frame ca rries the gage roll K, which revolves freely in its bearings in the end pieces of the frame. To each of these end pieces where it pivots upon the rod I-I, is attached one' end of a coiled wire spring 71 which surrounds the rod H, and has its other end secured to a sleeve g on the rod. The Spring being so wound and attached as to revolve the frame I, and gage roll into the position seen in red in Fig. 3, when they are released from the catch which holds them. The sleeve g may .be turned upon the rod to give the required tension to the spring t and may then be secured to the rod by a screw z' passing through it. A short stud k, rising from the frame A, near each end has a set screw Z passing through it, which serves as a stop against which the ends e, of the frame I Strike when it is swung down into the position shown in Fig. l, the screws being intended to regulate the position of this frame so that the aXis of the roll K, shall be immediately over the edge of the knife below it.

L is the knife of the same length as the roll K. It is secured to the bed A, by

I SCI'BWS m.

A spring apron M, of sheet metal is secured to the bed A, by screws n, passing through slots 0, in the table, this allows its position to be adjusted so as to bring a bar or rest p, on the front edge of the spring table a short distance beneath the edge of the knife L, as shown enlarged in F ig. 4L).

N, is a spring catch secured by a screw and slot at Q, to the bed A, into which catches the frame I, when brought down into the position shown in black in the drawings; but when the outer end S of this catch is depressed by the hand of the operator the frame I, is set free and is swung up into the position shown in red Fig. 3 by the tension of the spring L. The catch N and screw Z being so set with respect to each other that,

the gage roll sha-ll be held immovably during the operation of skiving and with its aXis directly over the edge of the knife.

Gperation: The gage roll K being in the position represented in red in Fig. 3 and the edge of the bar p, upon the front of the spring apron being adjusted so as to enter slightly beneath the edge of the knife as in Fig. 4L, the piece of leather to be skived is laid upon the knife and the roll is thrown into its working position by hand. By

apron is allowed to spring up past the edge of the knife. After' the leather is withdrawn it is simply necessary to depress the spring catch N, when the roll is immediately raised by its spring i1., as seen in red in Fig. 3, and the machine is ready for a repetition of the same operation. A far greater amount of work can thus be done upon this machine than upon those in which the gage roll is raised by hand and is adjusted by independent screws at each end.

Where a piece of leather is to be chamfered it is placed in the machine as before, the` roll is revolved into place and as the leather is drawn across the knife by one hand the gage roll is slowly depressed by turning the hand wheel C, with the other. 1vVhere a piece of leather is not to be thicknessed but requires simply to have the fibrous surface of its esh side removed, the operator will watch his leather as it passes through the machine and vary the position of his gage roll to suit the varying thickness of the leather.

It is obvious that there are other devices well known to mechanics which may be employed for the purpose of connecting the shaft B, with the gage roll frame wit-hout altering the spirit of our invention as for instance cams or eccentrics upon the shaft may be employed to depress the gage roll and a spring to raise it-or a worm gear and wheel may be used for the purpose, but as these details and mechanical devices form no part of our invention they need not be further described.

Ve are aware that the gage roll has been hung in a swinging frame and connected with a depressing apparatus and springs for ligaising it up and do not claim such features,

What we do claim isl. Hanging the gage roll K, in vibratory frames I, in combination with the spring it, and retaining spring catch N and adjustable stops, 7c, Z, the whole arranged and operating as specified for the purposes set forth.

2. The overlapping knife L in combinat-ion with the adjustable spring apron M, arranged and operating as specified for the purpose set forth.

J. A. SAFF ORD. JOHN W. CHASE. Witnesses:

WM. WooDBUiiY, PHILANDER H. WooDURY. 

